After employing a mental coach ahead of his fight with Marc-Andre Barriault at UFC 240, Krzysztof Jotko is seeing the results pay off.
Edmonton, AB — It wasn’t pretty, but the PPV card opener between Krzysztof Jotko and Marc-Andre Barriault ended in the Polish fighter getting his hand raised at UFC 240 on Saturday night. It’s Jotko’s second win on Canadian soil, so clearly he’s doing something right here. Of course, Barriault didn’t make it easy, and Jotko told reporters including Cageside Press that the Canadian’s approach made him switch up his game plan during the fight.
He also said he’s found himself as a fighter, after employing a mental coach, which helped him realize he was trying to be a fighter he wasn’t. “Yeah I think so. Because I’m going to the octagon, and I’m fighting, and I want to use my weapons, what is the best for me,” Jotko said about finding his identity in the cage.
“I’m not Robbie Lawler, and I don’t [need to] be agressive,” if the situation doesn’t require it. Jotko has found his own style instead. “I use my moving, I was a breakdancer six, seven years. I like to move, like to use the elbow, knee.” The latter likely factors because “I was living in Thailand one year.”
Jotko was sporting some stitches post fight, but it was nothing to be concerned with, he said. “I don’t worry about it. It was like six, seven stitches, but whatever.”
As for celebrating, he wouldn’t say what he’d be doing after the big win. “If I celebrate, I don’t want to say this,” he said with a laugh.
Following the fight, Jotko had one name in mind. Uriah Hall. Hall defeated him two years ago, a TKO loss that still bothers him to this day. “When I fight with him, I had a broken hand, and I don’t know about this. My doctor in Poland just f*cked up my hand, and I had like two years, pain all the time. I had ten times PRP, ten times cortisone in my hand. And all the time was bad, bad, bad.”
Jotko then visited an American specialist, “and he fixed my hands.” So he wants the Hall fight back. “I beat his ass around, and I was like one second, [lost concentration], and he touched me one time. And this was his fight.”
“I want to fight him again!” Jotko said with emphasis. “And show him now when I’m healthy, good, good mentally, strong, stronger. I hope Dana White and the UFC will make the rematch for me.”
Jotko, meanwhile, is on Team Whittaker when he clashes with Israel Adesanya at UFC 243 later this year. Because “I hate Adesanya. He talk too much trash. Maybe he’s good, but I really don’t like this guy.”
“He talk and talk and talk. It’s not fun for me,” Jotko finished.
Watch the full UFC 240 post-fight press scrum with Krzysztof Jotko above!
